"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
You only hold me up like this
'Cause you don't know who I really am
Sometimes I just want to know what it's like to be you
We're making out inside crashed cars
We're sleeping through all our memories
I used to waste my time dreaming of being alive (now I only waste my time dreaming of you)
Turn off the lights and turn off the shyness
'Cause all of our moves make up for the silence
And oh, the way your makeup stains my pillowcase
Like I'll never be the same
You only hold me up like this
'Cause you don't know who I really am
I used to waste my time on, waste my time on
Waste my time dreaming of being alive
(Now I only waste my time dreaming of you)
Turn off the lights and turn off the shyness
'Cause all of our moves make up for the silence
And oh, the way your makeup stains my pillowcase
Like I'll never be the same
I've got headaches and bad luck but they couldn't touch you, no
I've got headaches and bad luck but they couldn't touch you, no
I'm not trying
You only hold me up like this
Turn off the lights and turn off the shyness
'Cause all of our moves make up for the silence
And oh, the way your makeup stains
Like I'll never be the same
'Cause you don't know who I really am
Sometimes I just want to know what it's like to be you
We're making out inside crashed cars
We're sleeping through all our memories
I used to waste my time dreaming of being alive (now I only waste my time dreaming of you)
Turn off the lights and turn off the shyness
'Cause all of our moves make up for the silence
And oh, the way your makeup stains my pillowcase
Like I'll never be the same
You only hold me up like this
'Cause you don't know who I really am
I used to waste my time on, waste my time on
Waste my time dreaming of being alive
(Now I only waste my time dreaming of you)
Turn off the lights and turn off the shyness
'Cause all of our moves make up for the silence
And oh, the way your makeup stains my pillowcase
Like I'll never be the same
I've got headaches and bad luck but they couldn't touch you, no
I've got headaches and bad luck but they couldn't touch you, no
I'm not trying
You only hold me up like this
Turn off the lights and turn off the shyness
'Cause all of our moves make up for the silence
And oh, the way your makeup stains
Like I'll never be the same
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Of All the Gin Joints in All the World Lyrics as written by Joseph Mark Trohman Andrew John Hurley
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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Of All the Gin Joints in All the World [Tommie Sunshine's Brooklyn ...] song meanings
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